1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a folding camera having a shade for preventing the entry of ambient light into a film cassette located within one of the camera's main housings while an end of such housing is exposed to the ambient light during a portion of a photographic exposure cycle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One of the more desirable features of a camera is its compactness, and thus a large number of today's cameras are of the folding or collapsible type. However, once such a camera is erected in preparation for the taking of a series of photographic exposures, the issue of compactness is again raised. What does one do with the relatively large erected camera between exposures? Should the photographer momentarily put it aside until he has had time to reposition the subject for the next exposure? Should the photographer continue to hold the erected camera during such repositioning of the subject, thus subjecting the lens to possible inadvertent contact by the photographer's finger(s)? It might be argued that this problem could be obviated by collapsing the camera after every exposure but then that solution would hardly be embraced by the casual photographer. Further, what of the tourist who wants to take one more exposure as the last of a group of such tourists is scurrying to board their tour bus? Will such a tourist have time to erect the camera, take the exposure, and then collapse the camera before the bus starts to pull away; or will he forgo collapsing the camera in order to board such bus thereby subjecting components of the erected camera, e.g., the lens and/or bellows, to damage during any jostling while boarding the bus? One practical solution is to provide such a camera which assumes the erected position only during a photographic exposure, and at the completion of such exposure automatically returns to its compact collapsed condition.
When the folding camera is of the type specifically designed for use with a film cassette containing a stack of instant film units, which film units are adapted to be sequentially removed from the film cassette via a laterally extending slot in a leading end wall thereof, other problems are presented. As is well known in the art, cameras of this type are generally referred to as instant or self-developing cameras and include pressure-applying means, e.g., a pair of superposed spread rollers, between which an exposed film unit is to be advanced for processing of its latent image. Thus, it is imperative that the path the film unit takes between the film cassette and the spread rollers be clear of any interfering structure. This does not create much of a problem where the film chamber containing the cassette and the spread rollers are part of the same structure. However, in the case of a folding camera where one of the movable housings contains the film chamber and another housing supports the spread rollers, a problem arises on how to protect the film in the film cassette from ambient light which would normally enter the cassette via its laterally extending slot when the movable housing is moving into or out of its erected position. Stated another way, since there cannot be any interfering structure between the end of this film cassette containing the slot and the spread rollers, then this would dictate that the housing containing the film chamber be open ended, and that this open end of the film chamber would be exposed to the ambient light as the housing moves into and out of its erected position.